# What does science say about chewing an aspirin during a heart attack

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-science-say-about-chewing-an-aspirin-during-a-heart-attack/791549>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 18, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-science-say-about-chewing-an-aspirin-during-a-heart-attack/791549 "2017-07-18T03:32:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-science-say-about-chewing-an-aspirin-during-a-heart-attack/791549/1 "2017-07-18T03:32:48Z")

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On another forum people were talking about this, how if you think you are having a heart attack you should chew an aspirin and get to the hospital, claiming chewing the aspirin will save your life until you can get proper medical care.

However, what does the science say about this? Or is this something that you really can’t design and conduct a test for?

Looking around, I found this article claiming taking an aspirin helped.

[http://www.thennt.com/nnt/aspirin-for-major-heart-attack/](http://www.thennt.com/nnt/aspirin-for-major-heart-attack/)

But I think that is for immediate follow up after a suspected MI, not for taking an aspirin and then getting to the hospital ASAP during a heart attack.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2017, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-science-say-about-chewing-an-aspirin-during-a-heart-attack/791549/2 "2017-07-18T03:45:08Z")

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> **[Aspirin and Heart Attacks](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bedside-companion/)**
>
> Take Aspirin at the first sign of a heart attack, but don't lie down?

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**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-science-say-about-chewing-an-aspirin-during-a-heart-attack/791549/3 "2017-07-18T15:11:06Z")

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IANAD.

The trial you cited sort of answers your question. The trial looked at an old thrombolytic alone, ASA alone, both and neither. Patients were randomized within 24 hours of the onset of the suspected acute myocardial infarction.

The authors looked at the impact of time of initiation and the ASA results were as follows:

- Within 0 to 4 hours - 25% reduction
- 5 to 12 hours - 21% reduction
- 13 to 24 hours - 21% reduction

I can’t get the full text, and it doesn’t say specifically in the abstract what this reduction is, but I’m assuming it must be 5-week vascular mortality.

So it looks like earlier is a little better than later, but I doubt its statistically significant.